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Edited by Rev. S.R. Riggs under the patronage of the Historical Society of Minnesota. Bound together in one quarto volume are GRAMMAR OF THE DAKOTA LANGUAGE [pp. xx, 1-63] and DICTIONARY OF THE DAKOTA LANGUAGE in two parts: Part I: Dakota-English [pp. 1-278, including an Appendix, which consists of the reconstituted pages of the original manuscript of the dictionary which were destroyed in a fire, and Part II: English-Dakota [pp. 279-338]. The entire volume is interleaved with a blank page between every two pages, presumably for the owner?s notes. Laid in is a printed letter headed Santee Agency Neb. Dec. ?94 with the signature of the Santee Normal Training School. Also laid in is the original invoice for the binding of this volume which is dated Sept. 28, 1889 and bears the name of Geog. W. Reed [who was the grandfather of the person from who I acquired this volume]. Bound by Springfield Printing and Binding Company, Springfield Mass. Half leather over brown cloth with five raised bands and with gilt letters on the spine. Just touches of wear to the extremities, covers clean, gilt bright, small tear with no loss to the leading edge of the front free endpaper, the whole collated, occasional pencil marginalia (one in ink) in both volumes, such as ?NB?, check marks, or short notes?the apparent markings of the scholar who used this volume, else near fine to fine with no other internal markings. On the first printed page is the following written in ink at the bottom of the page beneath the publication data: ?1888 I paid T.L. Riggs for this book $20.00 | 1889 I paid for binding this book $4.00 | [which is then totaled to] $24.00.? The ?I? here is George W. Reid the previous owner of this took. Stephen Return Riggs (1812-1883) was a Christian missionary and linguist who spent forty years in the Minnesota River Valley, Nebraska, and Dakota Territory. To further his [missionary] project, he compiled the first printed dictionary of the Dakota language. T.L. Riggs [Thomas Lawrence, 1847-1940]] was the son of Stephen Return Riggs and followed his father into the Christian ministry. He founded the Oahe Mission to Dakota Indians in South Dakota. He was also a founder of the South Dakota Historical Society and was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame. George W. Reed was also a missionary to the Dakota Indians and did his work on Standing Rock Reservation beginning in 1884. Thus, the son, Thomas Lawrence Riggs, owned these books authored by his father, Stephen Return Riggs, which the son sold to George W. Reid, who had the two volumes bound as one. Given that the marginal notes in the Dictionary, one [p. 140] in the same brown ink and same hand as that on the initial page, the rest [see pp. 276 & 296] in pencil, but also in the same hand as that on the initial page, it seems clear that the notes were made by George W. Reid. All three men did missionary work among the Dakota Indians. In any case, this volume must be considered to be an association copy! A rare find, indeed! NOTE: Extra postage may be required for this very large and heavy book.
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